The Edge
by Playingaaronburr
Summary: The group fights to survive after the numerous human and walker threats they've faced and begin a new journey with more and less people then before.


**I haven't seen a lot of Carl Stories so I tried.**

 **...and failed..**

 **Hope you enjoy :) Please follow or fav or review or flame! :)**

* * *

 **The Edge**

He thinks sometimes that after everything they've been through that it can't get any worse. But then something happens and wishes he hadn't tempted  
fire spread so fast, a gas leak no one noticed. But the dead had smelt it and had been lured to the small veterinary clinic. The blaze had roared and they  
had lost two more members of their small group. It had been months - years - since the Governor, since Terminus and the Saviors. The place where his  
eye used to be throbs daily. And even though Carol and Michonne has told him repeatedly that none of the group would mind it if he walked without the  
bandage he still changes it daily, the gaze wrapped tightly and thickly around his head. Gaze is what leads him to Hannah.

* * *

When he first met Hannah in the middle of the medicine aisle of a beat up Walgreens, they both draw their guns.

They spend almost ten minutes yelling at each other to drop their weapons before a small herd passes through and they're forced to hide in the  
manager's office for nearly two hours. With a fading red pen and a long roll of receipt paper they're able to ask each other meaningless and important  
questions.

"Is there anybody with you?"

She rolls her eyes in a way that obviously means, "Do you really think I'd tell you that?"

 _"I've got a group waiting for me - good people - they're at the Metro Animal Clinic almost two miles away"_

(He doesn't know what makes him tell her that. She could be another Alpha, or another Negan but there's something he trusts.)

Afterwards she runs away and he doesn't see her for weeks.

* * *

But after the third week she comes roaring over the hill in a silver brings along her younger brother, Jonathan. And after there is a flurry of  
activity she tells him of how her grandmother had suddenly died and had turned on her, her brother and her cousin, Rebecca.

She couldn't kill them and had, instead, fled their compound in the woods.

Hannah's an asset to the group and she is soon doing runs and guarding the clinic like everyone else. She never tells him about the things she went  
through after the world went to Hell and he doesn't ask. He has to keep his own secrets too.

* * *

But over time as the days turn to weeks and the weeks turn to months she shares just a bit. After a nightmare she tells them about how she was raped  
and attacked on a run to a nearby restaurant. She had escaped but there was now a "V" shaped scar on her right him and the faint indents of a rope burn  
on both her ankles to prove it. When it's quiet and after everyone is asleep she tells them about how they had run into her paternal uncle's compound after  
the outbreak. And how one day he just walked into the forest and never came back. One sunny morning, when the world seemed to stop turning, Hannah  
tells him how her mom died in childbirth and before she could turn had shot herself in the head.

It's only after another month - when he's found out about her abusive father that abandoned her and her fear of starvation and the dark - that he tells her  
about his mother. About how she had died giving birth too. And that Lori had loved him. And that she had never really been able to get over the death of Shane.  
Fuzzy pictures start to fill his memory and he cries.

He thinks that the stories they tell each other are not just a way to get to know each other but also a way they deal with the pain. Carl knows to leave a  
candle burning through the night. Hannah knows surprise him unexpectedly. And as Carl's father's hair turns gray and Michonne gives birth to a baby named  
Daniel. And as Judith begins to talk. And as Daryl falls in love with a biker named, Lysa, who is vulgar and stubborn. And as Maggie begins to pray again. And  
as Carl turns seventeen and begins to grow a mustache. They're all able to sleep better at night.

* * *

But nothing last long. Not in this world filled with monsters - both alive and dead. When the fire engulfs the clinic it takes Carol. When the dead follow the light  
of the fire they get Michonne. (Although they'll never know for sure because no one saw her go down) They begin their long journey on a stretch of dirt road.  
Rick grieves and doesn't allow Judith or Daniel out of his sight. It is only on the third day that he begins to murmur things about "death" and "no hope" that  
Carl takes over as leader. They soon join up with another group of survivors, Marcus and his brother Gerald. Both brothers have orange hair and white skin.  
They too have been through hell.

* * *

Daryl's best advice is to avoid any main roads. Gerald seconds his motion. But Carl is unsure and doesn't resist anyway because it's been three weeks and he  
wishes his father would just snap out of it. Take control again. But Rick's just been sitting alone now, staring into space.

They came across a High School surrounded by tall chain link fences. They parked the cars right outside. Ready to go. There were only a few walkers left but  
they were mostly rotted out and slow. They bunkered down in a science classroom on the second floor and Hannah pulled beanbag chairs and pillows and sheets  
from the nurse's office.

Daryl stood watch, Lysa falling asleep on his lap. Marcus paced in front of the doors that Lysa had barricaded with a bunch of desks and had covered the  
windows and doors with thick silver tape.

Nothing came and the night was still when a large herd moved through. It made his neck turn cold and his eyes widen. There were hundreds of them. They  
didn't move near the school and seemed determine to walk on.

He, Daryl and Marcus didn't mention it to anyone else.

* * *

They stayed at the school - and ate peaches and corn out of cans - for a while when Rick finally snapped out of it. And he hugged Daniel, and Carl and Judith so  
tightly to his chest that they all turned a light blue.

* * *

It's been a year since they went school. He kept track by tallies on a dry erase board. And when they did reach 365 Lysa announced that they were going to celebrate  
in New Year's fashion. She raided a bar and brought back bottles of tequila and bourbon and beers. She kept a bottle of tequila for herself, and after a small glass  
caused him to choke, complained about how she had wanted to get drunk with someone. Marcus and Lysa began to drink, they played music using an old radio  
and the kids decorated and drew pictures all over the Lysa was well and truly drunk she stumbled over to Daryl and swayed slowly in front of him. Her eyes glassy.

"Did I ever tell you that I killed my kid?"

She swayed for a couple of more minutes as silence fell over the group. Her eyes opened wide before they rolled back into her head and she fainted, her body  
crashing onto the floor.

He finds out the story from Daryl. After the sickness had spread Lysa's two month old baby had turned a soft pale green, his eyes a gold yellow and he had tried to  
attack Lysa and she had killed him with a cutting board knife.

* * *

Rick soon took over again and using a large map from the history classroom began circling roads - Judith had put a small silver star over where they already were.

"We have to head further into town"

"You mean turn around?," Daryl asked, "Seems a little unproductive"

"Not turn around - regroup," Rick replied,"The town seems undisturbed and we could be able to get fuel, food"

"We're gonna have to be careful of walkers," Marcus said,"I've seen strays wandering around the road."

Carl, Daryl and Marcus met eyes.

"Then after we've gone through the town, we'll head for the coast," Rick continued, "That's where the Center for Disease Research is, we might be able to find help."

* * *

He doesn't really know what to do.

The group is split, right down the middle.

There are those who want to stay at the school (Lysa, Gerald & Hannah) and those who want to go to the CDR. (Rick, Daryl, Marcus) and he's the only one  
who can break the tie.

The coast is beautiful. There are only a few walkers and the sand is warm. Rick, Daryl & Marcus went to the CDR almost two hours ago. Rick told him that if they  
weren't back before the sun set to head north towards Washington.

But for now they're enjoy the sun and the sea. Daniel is squealing and Lysa's on look out and everything fine for the moment.

For now.

Hannah leans over and kisses him just above his bandage and her lips feel so smooth.

* * *

It is dark and the moon is high in the sky when Daryl & Rick finally appear.

The place was over run with walkers but they had managed to clear the building and the surrounding area out when a walker had gotten Marcus. Gerald doesn't  
cry when he hears the news just stares at them before he swears, punching a tree. Wood splatters everywhere and he curls into himself.

They move into the CDR and bury Marcus under the flowers that are planted along the walk.

Gerald says that Marcus would have liked that because in the Old World they were landscapers who had taken care of hundreds of lawns and parks.

The CDR is a roomy place. There are literally hundreds of medications and pain killers. They even find the cure for HIVS and hundreds of bottles of frothy Pep-to Bismol.

Carl takes a large office and shoves a thick bed into it, shoving the once priceless mahogany desk out of the way. There is a large fireplace and a large window that  
faces the front of the building. He coax his gun and sets it beside the window.

There isn't a cure. He's resigned himself to that.

The only thing to do know is try to live a life worth living. The salty air doesn't not help either.

* * *

 **So there.**

 **I might do one more chapter just because. But I do consider it finished.**

 **I know its sad and depressing but I'm sad and depressed.**

 **Thank you for reading! :) Please Review or Fav**

 **-Reara**


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